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I am interested in the integration of mindfulness and Hatha yoga both as a healing modality and a means to liberation of mind and heart.
I integrate focused, mindful sequences with compassionate healing to provide a transformative and practical yoga session.

Latest Articles

A human mind is a wandering mind and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind wrote psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University in the
Journal Science
. According to these researchers, mind-wandering is a human brain's default mode of operation.
Using modern technology, the authors created an iphone app that contacted volunteers at regular intervals throughout the day to find out what they were currently doing and whether they were thinking about their current activity or about something else that was pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.
Intrigued by the researchers skillful use of modern technology to determine the ...

Verse 2.46 of Patanjali's yoga sutra states Sthira Sukham Asanam. Sthira means steady, stable and motionless while Sukha means comfortable or ease-filled. Asanam means meditation posture derived from the root "as" which means to sit. It also means to be present in one's body, inhabiting fully in it.
Here Patanjali is stating that one's posture in meditation should be steady and comfortable or filled with ease. Whereas Patanjali is mainly referring to the sitting posture, any posture can be used that brings steadiness and ease.
The same principle applies in hatha yoga and is best understood ...

Increasingly we are hearing in the popular press the axiom "neurons that fire together, wire together". In 1949 Canadian behavioral psychologist Donald Hebb proposed that learning linked neurons in new ways. He proposed that when two neurons fire at the same time repeatedly (or when one fires, causing the other to fire) chemical changes occur in both, so that the two tend to connect more strongly. Hebb's concept was neatly summarizerd by neuro-scientist Carla Shatz: Neurons that fire together, wire together." (from Norman Doidge's book "
The Brain that Changes Itself
")
What this means in practical terms is that ...

The word asana literally means "to take one's seat". The great first century sage, Patanjali, in his famous yoga sutra, the "declaration of independence" for all students of yoga, refers to asana as both the inner and outer posture one takes in seated meditation. At first glance this would seem at odds with our modern interpretation and understanding of asana that we are accustomed to finding in sweaty yoga studios on practically every street corner of urban America. In fact hatha yoga, the yoga of movement, did not come into existence until the beginning of the second millennium approx ...

Our brains are composed of a left and right hemisphere connected by the corpus collosum, a small number of neural circuits located deep in the brain where energy and information is sent back and forth between the two sides. The left hemisphere is the more analytical, conceptual, fact based side that loves logical, linear, linguistic and literal communication. The right side of the brain is the more image-based side that processes non-verbal eye contact, facial expression, tone of voice, gestures and timing. It sees the whole picture whereas the left sees the world in terms of either/or. The right ...

Two prominent institutions are currently undertaking scientific studies to measure the effectiveness of yoga on alleviating post traumatic stress disorder in war veterans.
The Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living in collaboration with Harvard Medical School faculty and research assistants have developed a
comprehensive yoga program
specifically designed to relieve symptoms of trauma.
There are pre-, mid-, post-, and long-term follow-up treatment measures that include questionnaires and interviews that measure PTSD symptoms, subjective well-being, and mood; electrocardiogram readings to monitor heart-rate variability; and 24-hour urine samples to assay the presence of stress hormones. Three months following the study, subjects will complete ...

What makes for a successful and fulfilling life? How do we maintain a sense of balance in the face of life's challenges and difficulties? How do we maintain a sense of who we are and what we consider to be valuable and true when life gets tough? Phillip Moffitt's wonderful new book
Emotional Chaos to Clarity
addresses these questions with clarity and wisdom. It goes to the heart of what we all face as human beings regardless of our background, economic status, religion or belief system.
This book helps you get in touch with your authentic self, the ...

Recently I have been spending a few moments setting an intention before beginning my daily practice. These are the qualities of the heart that I would like to manifest in my life. Part of setting an intention means listening carefully to what the deepest part of me wants - to the still silent whisper of my heart.
The intention may be to be kind to myself or to open to whatever arises or simply to be more present to the flow of body sensations as they rise and fall from moment to moment.
It is important to distinguish the difference between ...

Patanjali tells us in chapter 1 of the yoga sutra that abhyasa, continuous applied effort, coupled with vairagya, the willingness to observe experience without getting caught in reactivity to it, will lead to freedom from suffering.
Similarly in Buddhism, the fourth of the divine loving abodes, upeksha, translates as equanimity and is derived from the latin word aequanimitus (aequus 'equal' + animus 'mind'). The balanced heart feels pleasure without grasping and clinging, feels the unpleasant without resisting, condemning or hating and it stays open to neutral experience with presence.
Our asana practice offers a good opportunity to recognize where, when and ...

According to the Dalai Lama, “the purpose of our life is to seek happiness”. Yet why are we not happier? What keeps us from being happier? There may be many reasons for this, but one reason stands out for me.
We are looking for happiness in the wrong places.
That is because we are deeply engrained to believe that happiness lies outside of ourselves. Our culture continuously reinforces this notion – consider the endless bombardment of media messages that flood our consciousness every day. The central theme of these messages is that if we can just get this next thing, then ...